1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for registering face identification features, which automatically registers features for identification from face images retrieved by utilizing a network. In particular, the present invention relates to an apparatus for registering face identification features capable of efficiently registering face identification features of celebrities appearing on TV such as actors, models, artists, newscasters, etc., which is used to identify who a picked-up face image is when retrieving TV programs by face identification by being provided with a TV image recording device to accumulate and view TV images, a method for registering the same, and a program for registering the same to carry out the method for registering the same, and a recording medium in which the program for registering the same is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several apparatuses for identifying, based on faces, who a picked-up person is among registered persons have been proposed before. A person authentication apparatus and a person authentication method, which are disclosed in Patent Document 1, exist as a representative face identification apparatus.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H9-251534
As shown in FIG. 11, a face identification apparatus described in Patent Document 1 is composed of, as its basic portion, a feature extracting portion 91 for extracting a face feature, which greatly influences specifying a person, from a picked-up face image, a feature accumulating portion 92 that accumulates the feature extracted in advance by the feature extracting portion 91, a feature comparison portion 93 for calculating a similarity by comparison of the features registered in advance in the feature accumulating portion 92, and an identification portion 94 for specifying the person based on the similarity.
Generally, a face greatly changes in appearance due to fluctuation resulting from posture, lighting and facial expression. As a result, where an unknown fluctuation occurs, which is not included in the feature registered with respect to a picked-up face, such a case occurs that a deviation is brought about from the registered features and it becomes difficult to correctly identify the person.
In Patent Document 1 described above, in order to realize face identification capable of withstanding fluctuations, face images to which a plurality of fluctuations that may occur when registering a face are added are prepared in advance, and the features including the fluctuations are extracted.
Before carrying out identification of an unknown face, it is necessary to extract and register the features of a person to be identified in advance. This is not limited to the face identification apparatus according to Patent Document 1 described above, but is common to all the other face identification apparatuses. For example, in the case of identifying an appearing person by face for the purpose of retrieving TV programs, it is necessary to register the names of persons having the possibility of appearing on TV and their features in advance. A first problem exists which takes a great deal of time and effort where the names and face features of all celebrities appearing on TV are manually registered since a huge number of persons of approximately 15,000 persons such as actors, models, artists, newscasters, etc., are registered in the Japan Talent Directory.
Also, a second problem exists which requires preparation, in advance, of face images to which a plurality of fluctuations occurring in registration are added in order to achieve face identification capable of withstanding fluctuations and also causes difficulty for general viewers to collect face images of celebrities appearing on TV, causes difficulty for general viewers to collect at one time even if the collection itself is possible, and takes a great deal of time and effort.
Prior art face identification apparatuses including Patent Document 1 described above are not provided with any special measures with respect to the above-described two problems regarding registration of the features.
In addition, various unsolved problems still remain as a face identification apparatus. One problem that may be mentioned is that the identification accuracy is not sufficiently high. Therefore, the accuracy does not reach the level capable of identifying a face once the face image is picked up, wherein a problem actually occurs where a person cannot be identified just because the face direction is changed.
Accordingly, for the purpose of increasing the accuracy of face identification processing, various types of face feature registering technologies have been proposed.
For example, Patent Document 2 discloses a method for retrieving images, which is featured in including the steps of detecting frames having faces picked up therein from video images, extracting face images from the frames, grouping faces of the same persons that appear from all the extracted face images, and extracting the representative face image per appearing person.
According to the image retrieval method, detection specialized in faces is carried out with respect to video images, and detected faces are identified, wherein faces of persons appearing in video images can be distinguished and displayed.
Patent Document 3 discloses a person authentication apparatus including means for inputting image data to authenticate persons, frame by frame, means for detecting a face region from the image data, means for detecting a feature from the face region, means for determining by comparison of the feature with the reference value whether the feature is valid, means for storing a plurality of frames of features determined to be valid, means for obtaining an authentication feature by carrying out calculations on the plurality of frames of features, and means for authenticating the person by comparison of the authentication feature with the face features stored in advance.
According to the person authentication apparatus, it is possible to improve the measurement accuracy of features to determine valid frames while preventing the authentication accuracy from being lowered due to the posture of his or her head and influence of his or her facial expression.
Patent Document 4 discloses an authentication system including a face authentication database in which a plurality of face information obtained by picking up the face of an identical person to be authenticated under a plurality of different circumstances are registered in association with pattern names corresponding to the circumstances, an identical person specifying table in which the pattern names registered in the face authentication database and an identical person picked up with the pattern names are associated with each other, a camera for obtaining face information by picking up a face of a person to be authenticated, authentication processing means for specifying face information having the highest similarity by collating the face information picked up by the camera and a plurality of face information registered in the face authentication database with each other, means for specifying an identical person corresponding to the pattern name based on the identical person specifying table from the pattern names of the face information specified by the authentication processing means.
According to the authentication system, it is possible to correctly carry out authentication under any circumstances by preparing a plurality of face information under different circumstances.
Patent Document 5 pertains to a new registration apparatus for face image database for registering a new person in a person face image database and a face feature database, which is configured so as to include means for estimating the positions of a plurality of feature points in the face region of a person in an input image and the directions of the face of the person, means for selecting a frame, in which the face of the person shows a predetermined direction, from the input images in accordance with the face direction information estimated by the estimating means or the face direction information input from the outside, user interface means for displaying the frame selected by the selecting means and its associated information upon receiving a user instruction, and means for calculating database components of the person in the input images by measuring the face features of the person in the vicinity of the plurality of feature points, which are estimated by the estimating means, in the frame selected by the selecting means.
According to the new registration apparatus for face image database, database registration work of new persons can be automated.
Patent Document 6 discloses a face image registering apparatus that is configured so as to include a scene extracting portion for extracting a scene, in which the face image of at least one person is continuously picked up, from input video images, a representative face image extracting portion for extracting an image of a face turned straight ahead from the extracted scene, a registration face image extracting portion for extracting various types of registration face images matching the pick-up condition of other face images in association with the person expressed by the extracted front face image from the scene, and a face image registration portion for registering the extracted representative face images and the extracted registration face images in a face image dictionary in a state where they are associated with each other.
According to the face image registration apparatus, various face images that can be utilized for authentication processing can be registered in a dictionary without giving time and effort to a user.
Patent Document 2: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2001-167110
Patent Document 3: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H6-259534
Patent Document 4: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2005-115481
Patent Document 5: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2002-133423
Patent Document 6: Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2007-249588
In an authentication apparatus using face images, it is necessary to register face images picked up under various conditions in order to improve the authentication performance. However, work for manually selecting images suitable for registration from a number of still images and registering the same is cumbersome and difficult.
Also, the technology described in Patent Document 2 only groups the faces of the same appearing person and is not devised in that the grouped faces are registered in a database.
The technology described in Patent Document 3 only improves the measurement accuracy of the feature to determine valid frames and is not devised in that the measured feature is registered in a database.
With the technology described in Patent Document 4, it is necessary for a user to prepare face information under different circumstances in advance, and a problem occurs by which unnecessary time and effort are brought to the user.
The technology described in Patent Document 5 only estimates the positions of the feature points in respective frames of input materials, wherein final determination is up to a user. Therefore, a problem occurs by which unnecessary time and effort are brought to the user.
Although the technology described in Patent Document 6 provides means for newly registering face features, no attention is paid to updating of the registered features of persons already registered.
In addition, the technology described in Patent Document 6 only registers a plurality of features in association with the face photographs, wherein no attention is paid with respect to registering a plurality of features and names of persons in association with each other.
As described above, by utilizing the prior arts, it is difficult to cover a plurality of face images required for an authentication apparatus in advance, wherein a problem is brought about by which it takes a great deal of time and effort in view of manual registration of various face features by a user.